Call Center Agent

“Call center”
Mataas na sweldo, magaan na trabaho, no age limit at hindi rin kailangang
college graduate. Ang tanging requirement, ganda ng boses at galing sa
pagsasalita. ‘Ika nga ng iba, “in” ka kapag nasa call center ka. Pero
paano kung ang kapalit ng magadnang sweldo at iba’t ibang benepisyo, ay
ang kanilang kalusugan at kaligtasan?

That is the article at abs-cbsnews.com about their feature in The
Correspondents about call centers and their employees.

Sad to say, Gigi Grande and the producers who conceptualized the said
episode was not able to capture the truth behind call centers and their
employees.

magaan na trabaho — this is a misconception that a lot of people have
about call centers. this is work, serious work and not playtime. as call
center agents we are the frontliners of some of the biggest companies
around the world. we handle their first line of defense for their
businnes, Customer Service. we Filipinos who work in call centers
represent these companies to their consumers and we filipinos can spell
the success or downfall of these business just on how we deal with their
consumers 24/7 and that is not an easy task. the reason why call centers
thrive in the philippines is because filipinos have good customer service
skills. we are professional workers and we give everything a 100%. i
salute all the call center employees who make this feat possible. it means
jobs and job security to the filipinos who wanted to work in their own
country.

no age limit — because call centers are equal opportunity employers. they
do not set limitations to people’s ability to work. it is only here in the
philippines where we put an age limit to applications. it really does not
matter what age the applicant is as long as they can still deliver quality
performance. it is called diversity.

hindi rin kailangang college graduate - for cheap call centers maybe, not
for the big ones. we encourage our applicants to finish college first
before applying. they may also be assisted through schedule requests if
they want to continue studying while still employed.

Ang tanging requirement, ganda ng boses at galing sa pagsasalita — for
radio stations yes. not for call center. we are not DJs. we also require
high IQ and intelligence in call centers. For example, Wil Ison, the 24 yo
manager who was featured in The Correpondents. You did not even applaude
him for reaching that position in such a young age. if he was employed in
a bank, he will only become a manager if he kissed enough bossess ass or
because he is already 50 years old. People like Wil were promoted because
they are good employees. Most of the call centers have internal
application processes that enables the employees to apply for higher
position highliting their performance and capabilities and not who their
friends are and whose ass they just wiped.

‘Ika nga ng iba, “in” ka kapag nasa call center ka. - this is not a fad.
we are working, we pay our taxes, we are productive citizens of this
country. we chose to stay and earn here in our own country rather than go
abroad and contribute to the brain drain. we earn a lot beacuse we work
hard. we are thankful for the good education we were provided by our
parents that gave us the competencies we have now. we are working for
multinational companies and we get promoted. most of us 21-30 years old
and we are managers, supervisors and senior managers.

we may not be doctors or lawyers but at least we are not corrupt. we are
productive and we make sure that our families and our future families will
not be included with the uneducated, paid rallyists in EDSA, who do not
even understand why they are there. we are not a burden to the government,
they should even be thankful because it is our tax, the middle class tax,
that makes it possible for the Philippines to stay alive.

instead of potraying us as obese, smoking insomiacs….why not thank us?
applaude our achievements, be proud that we are very good with what we do
that’s why investors come in to the philippines. ask the government to
provide security to the employees who have different schedules from the
normal 9-5 workers? ask them to take care of us and in return we will work
harder, show the companies that it is worth investing in the philippines,
we will continue to pay our taxes and slowly but surely help our country
progress.